Barca Set the Pace, Real Madrid Already Trails

byBrian HallonAugust 30, 2010

This summer new Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho expressed his desire to add one more superstar striker to his artillery and following one match we can see why. Real Madrid was unable to score today in their debut league match of the season against Mallorca and the club has already fallen two points behind rivals Barcelona.

Real Madrid did grossly outshoot their opponent, but wasted several opportunities inside the box. Several new faces were among the starting eleven including Angel Di Maria and Sergio Canales and even newly signed forward Mesut Ozil saw some reserve minutes of action alongside Karim Benzema. But regardless of the man no one was up to the task today in the first match of the season and new manager Jose Mourinho has to be disappointed in the slow start for his Los Blancos side.

And Barcelona would enjoy the strong start that was expected for the returning champs and their freshest face on the squad David Villa would score in his first match with the former treble winners. In fact it would be a fitting trio of goal scorers for the club that would easily handle Racing Santander 3-0. Lionel Messi would score on a nice chip in the early minutes, then it was who other then Mr. Clutch from this summer Andres Iniesta that would secure the victory with the second goal on a volley from outside the box, and of course Villa would put the game away with the third finish in the second half.

Two great teams had very different starts this weekend and the chase has already begun for Mourinho and his new side.